The Myth of Evil: the Reevaluation of the Judaic-Christian Tradition in the Work of Georg Heym
1961; Routledge; Volume: 36; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/19306962.1961.11787058
ISSN1930-6962
Autores ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size NotesAll quotations from the diaries of Heym are from Dichtungen und Schriften: Tagebücher, Träume und Briefe, ed. Karl Ludwig Schneider (Hamburg: Ellermann, 1960), Vol. III. Cited as Schriften..Hölderlin, trans. Michael Hamburger (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952), p. 151.Expressionism in German Life, Literature and the Theatre (Cambridge: Heffer, 1939), p. 119.Kasimir Edschmid, “Über den dichterischen Expressionismus,” Frühe Manifeste (Hamburg: Wegner, 1957), p. 39.In “Der Dieb”: Mark xv, 34, 37; Revelation of Saint John xvii, 1–4, 8; Luke xv, 7; Hebrews vi, 4. In “Jonathan”: Matthew xxvii, 40. In “Die Morgue”: John xix, 30. In the diaries: p. 16 cf. Psalms cxxxvii, I; p. 17: cf. 1 Corinthians xiii, 1; p. 27: cf. Isaiah lv, 8–9; p. 76: cf. l Corinthians xiii, l; p. 136: cf. Isaiah lv, 9.Gesammelte Gedichte, ed. Carl Seelig (Zürich: Verlag der Arche, 1947), p. 82. All subsequent verse quotations will be taken from this edition. Prose quotations are taken from Dichtungen, ed. Kurth Pinthus and Erwin Loewenson (Munich: Wolff, 1922).Walter H. Sokel, The Writer in Extremis: Expressionism in Twentieth Century German Literature (Stanford: Stanford Un. Press, 1959), p. 63.Lucian’s description of the city on the Islands of the Blessed might also be mentioned as a possible source. Heym’s alterations follow a similar pattern to the one outlined above, which suggests that both influences were at work. In Lucian’s city, walls are of emerald, amethysts form the altars, streets are paved with gold. There is neither day nor night in this city, but an eternally glowing twilight; it is always spring, and none but the south wind blows. There is a very vital difference in tone; Lucian’s irony is completely absent in Heym’s poem.Der bildhafte Ausdruck in den Dichtungen Georg Heyms, Georg Trakls und Ernst Stadlers (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag, 1954).“Die Farbensprache der expressionistischen Lyrik,” Deutsche Vierteljahresschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, Heft 2 (1957), pp. 198–240.P. 212.In reference to Heym’s reevaluation, K. L. Schneider comes to the conclusion that from an “existenziellen Erschütterung heraus setzt der Dichter zu einer rigorosen Revision aller Werte an” (Der bildhafte Ausdrnck, p. 64). Schneider does not attempt to outline the nature of this experience, and explains Heym’s reevaluation of reality by pointing to his rejection of and opposition to the values of the German middle class society at the beginning of the century. There is no doubt that Heym’s writing in quit e a number of instances can be interpreted from this sociological aspect. But that is not all. Only an investigation of the third major reevaluation of tradition, the first two being Schneider’s reality and conventional values, namely the Judaic-Christian tradition points to a possible source of all of Heym’s reevaluations . The reinterpretation of all three spheres seems to proceed from religious experience. Where Schneider speaks of a disturbance of the cosmos, to give but one example, a motion of heavenly bodies outside their natural course, that suggests fear, an instance of what Schneider calls “Dämonisierung,” one can go one step further in explanation: Heym sees all order destroyed by a merciless demon, whom he identifies often with a Judaic-Christian god. Only once does a metaphor make the source of the demonic motion clear. In “Die Tauben” Heym sees in Old Testament language stars “Vom Hauche Gottes durch das All getrieben” (p. 1l8).Tagebücher, p. 288; p. 289.What K. L. Schneider in his transcription omitted as illegible, E. Loewenson in “Bemerkungen über das ‘Neopathos)” in Gesammelte Gedichte (Zürich, 1947), p. 246 rendered as “zur Welt hin und aus der Unheimlichkeit.—Ich bin in einen Sumpf getreten.—Ich habe den Himmel beleidigt.—Ich habe einen Retter gesehen.—Verehren.”.
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